Does God have a Plan for the World?

This Sunday morning I invited The Bridge service at Stonebridge UMC in McKinney “Inside the Pastor’s Studio.” The experience was designed to invite all 480-500 people inside my office for some theological discussion about the most popular theological inquiries I’ve been presented with over the last 4 months.

This sounded really fun, until I really took a look and started researching the questions:
-“Does God have a plan for the world, and how does God control it?”
-“The Old Testament God seems mean, does God really get mad and smite us?”
-“Does God really care about everything?”

The first one was this past Sunday and of course there was not near enough time to go over this question in detail, even if we did run over time by 15 minutes. So here is a further attempt to dive into a question that just might be unanswerable.

As I presented in worship, there has generally been two viewpoints in theology about God’s activity in the world, and many derivatives of these two. On one side there is Predestination, brought forth by popular theologians such as Augustine and John Calvin (and others). This view originated out of the concern of God’s sovereignty, that they felt God was in control of THE ENTIRETY of creation. In other words, there is nothing that happens in this world that God doesn’t control. The concern began over salvation, as no work of human kind should dictate salvation, and the choice of following Christ was deemed a work. Augustine’s works became translated differently in Western Christianity, especially America, later on, and the modern view is that anything and everything that happens during your day is the result of God willing it to happen. Have you ever thought about spilling your drink on your lap having a purpose in your salvation?

The other viewpoint has come from many, but was popularized by Pelagius, Jacob Armenius and others. The view maintains that God gave human beings free will, and thus God cannot dictate the salvation or events of a person’s life. Otherwise, God would not be consistent, would resemble a Roman view of gods and many Christians have held God being wishy-washy to be a bad thing. So these men decided that God kick-started the world, and only intervenes to save those who have been asked to be saved. Overall, God is the big boss, but salvation comes from a human choosing to be saved. Also, all events in one’s life come from natural means, choices and random chance.

The question is…”Does God have a plan, and if so, how does God enact that plan?” This could be tricky.

When we look at scripture we see both views. We see from the beginning God saying to Adam and Eve they can eat anywhere, name the animals and make choices, as well as Jesus even asking God if he can forego the cross. However, Paul writes that all things are preordained to God’s will, and we see God intervening throughout the Bible to heal people, win wars, etc. It’s not really clear cut.

The truth is, is that this debate exists in scripture, but is not answered in scripture. The debate is really between human beings, and you know how we tend to mess things up. The issue that I have with both of them, is that they are extreme reactions to a fear. A fear of God not being in control or a fear that humans are not worth much to God.

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, certainly had his fears, but the cool thing about his journey with Christ was that he had so many different religious group experiences that his theology that we adopt and apply is a middle of the road approach with logic and experience involved. Wesley realized that we need to rely on scripture for all answers, but the answers aren’t necessarily just in there like a science book.

So Wesley’s answer to this question is that God is absolutely in control of the world, and as we see throughout the Bible, God has a plan for things in creation, right down to the individual…all the way up to the world. However, Wesley also allows for things to simply happen, because humans make choices that impact their environments.

I think we can safely say that the plan for the world is to reconcile all of creation to God’s original intent. That the earth would be healthy, that life would exist without death, and that all humans would bow before God as their creator and savior.

The hard part comes when we start to think about the individual plans for each person. I once heard a person say that God had blessed him that day by finding a 20 dollar bill on the sidewalk. My initial thought was “God must hate the person that lost it.” Of course, I’m saying that sarcastically, and the general response would be something like, “Of course not, the man who lost the money was simply needing a lesson in patience and humility.” The problem is, is that we speculate on this, we guess who the man is. I have no problem with saying that God causes things to happen and compels people to work for God’s mission on Earth, but I do have a problem when we try and figure it out for others. When we try and assume that my friend’s passing in a car wreck was so that others would be touched and come to know Christ. Why does that make sense at all? Why would God have to kill more people if Jesus’ death was supposed to be for all people? Why can’t we believe that death happens to us, just like plants? I’m assuming here that everyone feels that plants come from God.

It’s easy for me to talk about a plan of God for me, because I believe I have felt very strongly a plan for my life to serve in ministry at a local church. There are people who feel this, and it crashes and burns. And that is where we have to reflect. God’s plan isn’t just for you, it’s for the world. When I think about people who I know that have been called to ministry, I look at the people around them…people affirm it. I look at the work they do…and it points to the desires we find from God in scripture. I look at the people whose lives are changing. My point, is that when God’s plan really does occur in someone’s life…you can tell. There is fruit for them, for their family and friends, and most importantly I believe for the universal and local Church.

This means that God could have a plan for us, but we can totally ignore it. We can live our lives, and maybe even by happy, and maybe even be brought into the glory of heaven, without ever touching on the true versions of ourselves. We have the choice, but God has the plan. It is our mission to pray and realize that plan for us and get on board. After all, God is the one at the end of the tracks.

So maybe the real question should be… “how much have we made a plan for God?”